Cuthbert insists Luton can handle the pressure of a promotion race

Mike Simmonds

Hatters club captain Scott Cuthbert believes his side have the character to cope with supporters’ expectation of a push for promotion to League One this season.

Town’s 3-0 win at Cambridge on Saturday made it 10 points from the opening five games as Luton sit second, with fans starting to believe this could be the year their team finally make it back to the third tier of English football.

“Our aim is to be up there challenging for automatic promotion and the championship and we fully expect with the squad we’ve got that we can do that.”

Scott Cuthbert

Cuthbert said: “You just need to learn as you get older to deal with that and in a way the young lads are a bit oblivious to it.

“They’re just young and full of confidence and don’t really pay too much attention.

“They are a passionate support, they do demand a lot from the players at home and quite rightly. We’re one of the biggest teams in the league, we’ve got a fantastic squad, a talented squad, full of young players and older players that have been there and done it.

“There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be that expectation on us to do well this season, because we’re certainly expecting it from ourselves.”

Despite a hugely promising start to the campaign, Cuthbert feels there is still plenty more to come, adding: “Definitely, I think so.

“When you bring in new players, they need a bit of time to adapt. We are still only in the first month of the season so there’s plenty more time for the players to settle in even more and get even more used to the way we do things.

“We feel that there’s plenty more to give and our aim is to be up there challenging for automatic promotion and the championship and we fully expect with the squad we’ve got that we can do that.”